Vancouverpetunia - Now Sapphire - April 7, 2016

[bride2016]

Congrats, lovely! I love the sneak peeks so far! Can't wait to see more Enjoy the honeymoon!! 

[vancouverpetunia]

Thanks, ladies, for your congrats messages! We've been married two whole weeks now haha. I'm finally catching up (or trying to). We got back late Sunday night from Costa Rica. Had Monday off, which was nice to get organized (and also drink a little too much at a sunny happy hour!). Back to work since Tuesday. Real life kinda sucks. We bought a lottery ticket for tomorrow LOL

 

Overall, we were thrilled with everything. The resort was amazing; our group all got along so well; the wedding itself went off (basically) without a hitch; the boat cruise was fun; and we LOVED Costa Rica. I'll be starting on my review shortly, so more details to come soon. 

 

One of our friends made a video for us. I just love it and thought I would share. She is our photographer's wife (who is also our friend), so she was along for all of the photoshoots and caught some great moments. 

https://replayapp.com/v/CpMhMDMP9x/

Edited April 22, 2016 by vancouverpetunia

[deecol]

Welcome back and congrats @@vancouverpetunia!!! What a nice video!!! I giggled when you dropped your earring down your dress a couple times lol!

 

So happy to hear everything went so well for your big day and honeymoon you looked so beautiful and happy xo

 

 

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[calgarybride2015]

Awe love it

 

 

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[acw271011]

Omg Erin I love it!!! That's so sweet!! I knew I would do the exact same thing with my earrings so I had my friend do it for me!! lol I was totally all thumbs!! Your hair looked absolutely gorgeous!!! Perfect decision on the style!! And your dress...... Just beautiful!!!!!!

 

Absolutely cannot wait to hear all the details!!!

[ashhtayy]

That video is amazing! It brought tears to my eyes Congrats again on being a Mrs! Can't wait to read about your wedding week, wedding day & honeymoon!

[vancouverpetunia]

Thanks, @@deecol, @@calgarybride2015, @@acw271011, @@ashhtayy! The earring thing was hilarious - I love that she captured it and included it in the video. I have written half of my very detailed review, but I still have quite a way to go and I also want to include some of our professional photos in it - which we are getting tomorrow night!!!! I'm so excited 

 

I also decided to write an account of our week, what we did, how we felt, etc. It's maybe more for me than it is for BDW, as I'm already starting to forget things about our week   I'm hoping this will help me remember always. And maybe it provides you with some reading material while I'm at it. It's long... And I've only written about the first three days so far.

 

Sunday, April 3

We arrived at the airport a bit early, as we were ready to go earlier than I thought we would be. As soon as we got there, we started to run into friends & family. Everyone was happy & excited, including us!

 

We boarded the flight (Air Transat) and the couple in front of us were getting married as well. We banded together to take one overhead bin for both of our dresses, as there wasn’t a closet. The flight was pretty uneventful. Our group was seated all around the plane, so we didn’t really have the chance to hang out with everyone. I made the rounds, though, and handed out our welcome letter. We’d planned to have this given to everyone at check in, but I wasn’t able to get it to the resort in time. We did get complimentary baby bottles of prosecco, and a second drink (we stuck with the prosecco), and a box of snacks, which was actually quite tasty.

 

 

 

When we arrived in Mexico, our luggage came right away (we had priority bags - 2 large & 2 small), so we went straight to customs. In case we got the dreaded red light, I wanted to be ahead of our group. But we got the green light YAY! And out into the melee. Quickly found our bus - at the very end of the line, and then we waited, and waited, and waited. There was a couple going to our resort (not part of our group) who never showed up, so an hour later, we finally left.

 

Everyone was tired, but happy to be there. We bought beers & margaritas on the bus and we were on our way. We were the second stop, so it was pretty quick. When we arrived, we were whisked over to the Preferred Club check-in and sort of lost our peeps. It was a rather chaotic. We planned to meet up afterwards in the lobby bar. We got to our room and the AC was leaking. There was a big puddle in the hallway! But the bellboy called maintenance and they were there within 5 minutes. It was cleaned up and fixed by the time we got back that night, and we had no problems after that. In fact the AC was the perfect temperature the whole time we were there.

 

We tried to find our group, but of course it took a while for everyone to check-in and then they scattered. We decided to go to the buffet, as we figured most people would end up there looking for dinner. And we did start running into people, including some people who had arrived earlier and/or on separate flights. But I was starving and getting hangry. I just wanted to sit down and eat! This was to become a common theme throughout the week - trying to get somewhere or do something, but running into people everywhere, so it always took more time than it should. Anyhow, we eventually ate and then headed off to the lobby bar for some drinks - most people went to bed pretty early that night.

 

Oh and I must mention “Gimme” - he is a garden gnome that has made the rounds living with Jeff & his buddies for the last 10 years. He came as someone’s carry-on luggage and was featured prominently in photos, with friends, family and strangers alike. Sadly, Gimme met his demise on the dance floor one night. We are planning to have a “put-Gimme-back-together” sometime soon!

 

 

Monday, April 4

We woke up fairly early. It had poured rain the night before and it was cloudy. We had breakfast at the buffet and then headed out of the gates to meet KatyHK to get the decor items we had rented. Then we wandered out to the beach to find people. We spent a few hours on the beach and a bunch of people got fried - they were deceived by the cloudy weather. Even though it was cloudy, it was still warm and pleasant.

 

 

We had planned a meet & greet cocktail hour at the lobby bar that night. Nothing official - we were just going to grab a corner of the bar and hang out. Well, that night the bar was hosting the buffet dinner for the entire resort! Oops. Luckily, some friends of ours went early and grabbed a section off in the back. Not really enough seats for all of us, but we kept grabbing chairs when we could and people were milling about anyhow.

 

 

I thought it was a lot of fun and it was great for people to meet and start to get to know each other. I found that for the first few days I was quite stressed out by my “hostess duties”. I wanted to make sure people were having a good time, were figuring out the resort, and most of all were getting to know each other - especially some people who were on their own (or maybe a couple) and didn’t really know anyone but us.

 

After the drinks, we all went our separate ways, with a group of us heading to the Mexican restaurant. And at the Mexican restaurant, they guys started doing tequila shots, which was a bit of a mistake, since our boat cruise was the next day…

 

 

Tuesday, April 5

We met with our wedding coordinator, Juan Carlos, in the morning. We took the rented decor and some stuff we had brought from home. Overall, there wasn’t a lot. We had vases, lights, papel picado, escort cards, table numbers & holders, some tealights and limes (for the escort cards). That was about it. When the WC opened up the suitcases, he looked at the stuff and asked us where we got it. I said we brought some stuff from home and got some stuff “in town” - sort of true. And then he asked if some of it was from Love & Lace Decor. Busted. I was worried he was going to charge us an outside vendor fee, but in the end he did not.

 

Otherwise, we spent time with him going through the form we had sent back, making sure it was correct and that there were no changes. I asked for a few “extras” that I was hoping he might throw in, but he basically said no to everything. I had met a bride in a FB group who got married there about a month before, had the same colors as me, and offered to leave me some of her candle holders (very sweet of her - I was prepared to buy them). But when we tried to coordinate it with Juan Carlos, he said he couldn’t promise that he would have room to store them. I crossed my fingers & hoped for the best, but when I asked, he said that he didn’t get them from her, she had left them in her room. Bummer. Then we walked out to see the Tequila Terrace & Beach. He showed us where everything would be set up. And that was about it. It took about 1 hour.

 

From there, it was almost time to meet our group in the lobby for our transportation to our H2Oh boat cruise. The day was beautiful, hot & sunny. We loaded into 3 vans and drove about 45 minutes to the marina at Puerto Aventuras. It took a while to get us organized at the dock - everyone had to sign a waiver, but then shoes off and everyone onto the boat.

 

We had 35 people, including 3 kids, on the boat. There was plenty of room for more, but it was nice not to be too crammed in. Most people were on the top deck or on the main deck at the front of the boat. As we left the marina, it got choppy. I mean really choppy. It was hard to stand upright as we got tossed around by the waves. They had put out some chips & salsa, but had to put it away because it was flying everywhere. We motored north for maybe an hour while everyone chilled with some tunes (and stayed seated for the most part). Luckily there were only a couple of people who were feeling a little green, but not too bad.

 

 

 

Then we dropped anchor to go snorkeling. A lot of people didn’t go - I think some weren’t planning to go at all, but others thought it was too rough. Some even got in the water and then decided to get back on the boat. And it was rough. It was probably the hardest swim of my life (not that I swim a lot). The current was strong and it was really hard to get to the snorkeling area, which was some distance from the boat. I was one of the last ones off the boat, and so one of the last ones to the snorkel site. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to do much snorkeling after all that work to get out there, as our guide decided that enough was enough and it was time to go back. But I did get to see a couple of rays, which was pretty cool. It was another tough swim back to the boat.

 

 

 

Then it was time to eat. We stayed anchored and they put out a late lunch of grilled chicken, tortillas, beans, pico de gallo & guacamole. It was super tasty, but again, the food was flying everywhere. My MIL got about 15 tortilla chips in the face, one at a time. Jeff couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t move to a different spot on the boat! LOL. After lunch, they brought out a cake for us to cut. The best moment of the boat cruise was when the wind caught a styrofoam plate of cake out of someone’s hand and I watched it fly across the table about 20 ft and hit someone else in the chest. It was pretty amazing. Heading back to the marina, it wasn’t quite as bad. We had the wind behind us instead of at us. Although turning into the marina, we leaned really far to the left side and I seriously thought we were going over. Obviously we didn’t, and it probably wasn’t that close a call. It just felt like it to someone who’s not used to boats. All-in-all, we were out about 3 hours.

 

We went to the Asian restaurant that night at one of the teppanyaki tables. The food was excellent and the cook was entertaining. Then back to the lobby bar for some Cards Against Humanity, which got a little out of hand, as it tends to do.

 

More to come...

 

 

 

 

 

[ashhtayy]

Ah! Love this. Can't wait to read more

[krystalball]

Everything looks and sounds great so far! Can't wait to read the rest of your review

 

Apparently this means I need to start on mine as well!

 

 

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[acw271011]

@@vancouverpetunia  Love it!! This is great and it sounds like a great time! Good on you on the boat! I would have been heaving over the side! lol We had a sunset cruise in Jamaica and it got rough and I remember telling Doug I didn't want to die!! It  was NOT fun!! lol Cool shots of the rays though.... so it was definitely worth it!!

 

Can't wait to read more....